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Even more so, he does not like the sport which he oversees being embarrassed.

That’s one of the reasons that Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez have been the first two, even the primary targets, of MLB’s internal investigation of Biogenesis and its alleged list of baseball-player clients.

They have embarrassed their sport.

There is true anger around baseball these days, much of it misguided. For instance, when Orioles manager Buck Showalter on Wednesday went on a rant to Paul White of USA Today regarding the pending Rodriguez suspension, he was absolutely right about the unintended benefit to the Yankees of losing A-Rod’s onerous salary off the books. But Showalter was dead wrong in what should be done about it.

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With the commissioner now lobbying for a lifetime ban for Rodriguez but seeming willing to settle for a suspension for the remainder of 2013 and all of 2014 if A-Rod backs away and takes his punishment without an appeal, it is clear Yankee management truly hopes the penalty is applied.

Baseball’s Biogenesis sanction against A-Rod, if he was to accept the compromise of 50 games plus one full season, would purge $25 million (U.S.) in salary from the Yankee payroll for 2014, plus approximately $9 million for this season. That would encourage the Yankees to plow saved monies into additional talent in ’14 while escaping CBA penalties for excess spending under the luxury tax.

“If Bud lets them get away with that, they’re under the luxury tax,” Showalter told USA Today. “If they can reset, they can spend again and I guarantee you in two years Matt Wieters is in New York.”

First of all, they are not getting away with anything. These are the rules that were collectively bargained by owners and players and approved by all 30 clubs, including the O’s. The rules state if any player is suspended without pay, the unpaid salary is taken off total payroll and therefore affects the formula for the luxury tax. The Yankees’ stated goal is to move payroll under $189 million for 2014.

Second, by mentioning his own catcher Wieters as possibly going to the Yankees as a free agent under such a scenario, Showalter is leaving himself open for an argument of a reverse tampering fine. And Wieters has every right to be upset with his manager. Wieters is one of the top young catchers in the game and is eligible free agency after 2015. He has said nothing about it.

Showalter needs to be careful. It is clear the Yankees are rooting for the commissioner in this historic baseball faceoff. They have had Rodriguez stashed on the DL for the last month after he had recovered from off-season hip issues. They are now waiting to see how Biogenesis plays out.

The third baseman’s anticipated schedule was to play at Double-A Trenton on Friday, through the weekend then perhaps join the Yankees and be activated. That would all change with the negotiated decisions expected to be finalized this weekend. Despite Showalter’s argument the Yankees are getting away with something, the Bombers can make a case for feeling duped from the start by A-Rod.

Rodriguez signed his first huge deal as a free agent with the Rangers prior to 2001 and was traded to the Yankees prior to ’04. After winning the 2007 AL MVP, A-Rod used an opt-out clause to pressure the Yankees into renegotiating his already ridiculous deal. They felt the pressure and extended him another five years through 2017 for even more money.

Since 2007, A-Rod’s numbers have done nothing but get worse, with injuries and scandal and allegations of PED use.

The Yankees are sick of it.

He claimed when confronted with the assertion that he failed random drug tests for PEDs in ’03 that he had dabbled in the stuff only between ’01 and ’03. Now, with his named dragged through the Biogenesis mud by Tony Bosch and with the belief that he is guilty in an attempted obstruction of justice in trying to destroy evidence, Selig wants to penalize him the max. Armed with more than $350 million in career earnings, A-Rod is fighting back.

Showalter’s history is as a talented, micromanaging, dynamic leader who builds winners wherever he goes — then wears out his welcome. A horsehide Mike Keenan? Showalter spent four years managing the Yankees before being fired. He then spent three seasons managing the expansion Diamondbacks, although he helped build the organization before they played a game. Both teams won a World Series the year after he left. The 57-year-old spent four seasons with the Rangers and is now in his fourth full year with the O’s.

Is this beginning of the end, a repeat of his exit scenario?

The point is that Showalter was wrong to voice his assessment of the A-Rod situation and should not have mentioned his own player. There is, in fact, a better solution for baseball in terms of modifying the current CBA and how to handle suspensions and any disappearing salary obligations.

There should be an added clause in which the unpaid salary during any suspension must be donated to charity by the team.

That way, even though the money would not count against team payroll for the luxury tax, it would still be out of pocket for the team with a philanthropic benefit to society.

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